Tony Becca

THE WEST Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is on the hunt for a coach and, after the disappointing performance of Australian Bennett King, instead of sticking with David Moore, another Australian, instead of going for someone from England, hopefully it will see the light, confine its search to the West Indies and select a West Indian for the job.

After playing cricket for so long, after playing Test cricket for 79 years since 1928, after producing so many great players and so many great captains, and after not only being the best in the world but also for a long, long time to the point where one of those teams that ruled the roost for so long is arguably the best of all time, the West Indies must be able to find one of their own to coach their own.

And that is particularly true when the coach, as has been the case in the past, is not responsible for coaching cricket in the West Indies or for setting up systems to improve coaching in the West Indies.

Job of the coach

The job of the coach is simply to coach the West Indies team and coaching the West Indies team does not mean showing someone how to hold the bat, when to play back and when to play forward, how to grip the ball and how to field the ball.

It would be a foolish coach, for example, who would attempt to tell any Test batsman much more one like Brian Lara how to hold his bat, how to stand at the crease and how to bat.

With the players having been coached for years before they get into the West Indies team and with the players, hopefully, having got into the team on the basis of performance, the job of the West Indies coach is really not to coach.

The job of the West Indies coach is to ensure that the players practise and train regularly and with a purpose, to look at the players in the nets and in a match, if there are any faults in their techniques to discuss it with them and, because of his experience as a player, it is also to advise them what to do in an effort to correct whatever faults there may be.

The job of a West Indies coach also includes advising the players on things like pitch conditions and atmospheric conditions and probably what to expect and how to deal with them.

It is also to motivate the players - to get them into fighting mood.

The West Indies coach therefore does not have to be a genius at teaching. He should, however, know the game, he should be a man of experience and therefore should have played the game at that level, he should be one who respects players, he should be able to talk to the players and he should be one who is respected by the players.

Most important, however, the coach should speak the language of the team; in order to understand them he should be familiar with the environment from which the members of the team come. He should share their dreams and their aspirations and for that to happen, he should be one of them - a born West Indian.

No improvement

King, a born Australian, has come and gone and West Indies cricket is no better than it was before his coming. In fact, remembering that the West Indies won the ICC Champions Trophy just before his arrival and that they did not only fail to win anything under him but also that the results were terrible, the West Indies were worse under King.

And it has been no better under Moore - the man, another Australian who, despite being King's deputy, was elevated to fill the position after King's departure.

Talking about coaching a few years ago, Greg Chappell, the former Australian captain, the former coach of India who had applied for the job as coach of the West Indies, said that "each country must look to their own culture and personality to develop a system that suits the local requirements", and a month ago while India were in England and winning the Test series, their former captain, Sourav Ganguly, replying to a question seeking to find answers for India's success following the departure of Chappell and the absence of a foreign coach, said the management skills were superb and there was no 'hiccups' in the dressing room.

A perfect dressing room

According to Ganguly, it was, in fact, a perfect dressing room - a dressing room in which the players enjoyed themselves.

Talking about coach Chandu Borde and his assistants Robin Singh and Venky Prasad, Ganguly said they were superb and especially so Borde who, at age 73, stood behind the nets, watched the players practise and sometimes came up with some good ideas about batting.

"You don't have to be a professor at this level," said Ganguly. "You don't need to treat international players like students. Mr. Borde understands and he does it (advise the players) perfectly."

Based on what has been coming from the players since the departure of King, based on what they have been saying about Moore, the West Indies dressing room was not and is not a perfect place. In fact, it seems that it is far from perfect and it is not only because King and Moore are poor coaches.

Need for local coach

West Indies cricket and West Indies cricketers need a local coach, it is as simple as that, and whether it be Gus Logie or Roger Harper again, David Williams or Phil Simmons, Eldine Baptiste or Otis Gibson, James Adams or whoever, until that happens, until West Indies players are assisted by their own, West Indies cricket will never return to or even near to its former glory.